Saddle up for this cult-worthy cheeseburger at Armadale’s sunny new wine bar

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It’s hard to keep up with all the wine bars opening in Melbourne these days, and even harder to tell them apart. The wine bar is one of those genres in danger of becoming formulaic: cute shopfront, expensive bread, at least one dish that is basically just raw sliced fish with some acid added, a few glasses of Australian wine, a longer list with some European bottles thrown in.

Do I sound jaded? If so, I recognise that it’s a privilege of the job. After all, we don’t fault pubs for serving parmas and chips, for being reliable and predictable stalwarts.

The neighbourhood wine bar is now so ubiquitous that perhaps we ought to start thinking of them the same way as pubs: casual venues that deliver a familiar range of drinks and dishes for those nights where you know what you want and don’t need to be surprised. (I proposed this wine-bar-as-pub theory to my son, who quipped, “So, like a pub, only for annoying people?” To which I replied, “Yes, people like me.” )

When I saw the news that Pony was opening in Armadale, I thought it was likely more of the same. But it turns out that there are quite a few things a wine bar can do to make itself stand out from the crowd.

One: Make that cute shopfront more than just a pleasing room behind vintage windows. Pony, which sits on Beatty Avenue amid a quaint little strip of cafes and other wine-focused venues, practically bursts with sunny good looks.

The green-tiled facade gives way to mirrors and yellow walls in the front room; upstairs an intimate dining room gets an airy feel from high ceilings, burnished white and blue walls, and lush blue velvet banquettes. It’s a lovely space, classic but fresh, and the trip through the kitchen to get upstairs is a fun peek behind the scenes.

It turns out that there are quite a few things a wine bar can do to make itself stand out from the crowd.

Two: Hire staff who know what’s what. In the bar, this means Dylan Field, who formerly worked at Gimlet, and is turning out drinks that would be at home in the city’s best cocktail bars.

My pick? The Aquarius ($21), a rum/passionfruit/vanilla concoction that finds balance in its use of brown butter. Field’s creativity with tequila and mezcal is also impressive.

The wine list has its crowd-pleasers, but also a few fun things for the nerds among us. And the service staff is both relaxed and knowledgeable, the kind of waiters who feel like friends at the end of the night.

Three: It’s fine to do expensive bread and raw fish (here it’s an $11 flatbread and $22 snapper crudo, both of which are exactly what you’d expect: nice! And predictable!) But you also need to do a few things that are just left of expected and do them very, very well.

In Pony’s case, that means a burger ($25) that is destined for cult status, its juicy beefy patties drenched in raclette and caramelised onions.

The kitchen, led by chef Mark Jennings, is really good with all manner of meat: chicken skewers ($10 each) come charred from the grill and topped with a perky sauce made from oregano and fermented chilli; the 300g scotch fillet ($42) with chimichurri is honestly one of the better steaks I’ve had in a while (and I’ve eaten a lot of very expensive steaks in this town recently, as is the trend).

There’s comfort on this menu, too, in the form of soupy chickpeas ($15) with tomatoes and harissa, or baked spinach and ricotta dumplings in red sauce ($40), that really only make sense for a group, since the serve easily feeds three people.

I wasn’t as convinced by the crispy rice pilaf ($26), not because its herb salad and yoghurt accompaniments weren’t lovely, but because it felt – and cost – more in line with a large side dish than a main course.

But my faith was restored when dessert arrived, a brown butter budino ($15) – basically the Italian version of a pot de creme. Layered with caramel sauce and a dollop of whipped cream that had a lovely sour edge, it was a perfect few bites of sticky decadence.

Is Pony reinventing the Melbourne wine bar? Absolutely not. In fact, it’s following the playbook quite loyally. But it embodies a universal truth in this wily old business: as long as excellence is at the core of what you do, it will be better than good enough.